Beshear: We're not done shaking down Full Tilt and PokerStars

I’m paraphrasing, of course, but I dunno man … it’s starting to seem inevitable that Antonin Scalia may eventually have to reveal his screen name and/or recuse himself to avoid violating any PokerStars T&C’s. But until then, the state of Kentucky is doing its part to make sure the Black Friday cases don’t go away.

The governor’s office put out a kinda strange press release last week, just to let people know, hey, don’t be confused by recent reports of certain online gambling cases achieving final settlement. The great Commonwealth of KY, you may recall, made the bold assertion in ’08 that it had a right to take over foreign web domains that failed to block access by Kentuckians. And now they would like you to know with extra certainty that Kentucky only let go of their claims against Absolute and UB (after a $6 million score) but have not otherwise released claims against poker sites that still have any money left, which they plan go after in full force.

"Penalty box" provisions may have to be left to States

WASHINGTON – A bill to legalize online poker that is being written in Congress and that Nevada senators are trying to pass by the end of the year could be challenged in court and found unconstitutional, according to a legal analysis by a former top government attorney.

The bill would set up a framework to license and regulate Internet poker companies, and to nourish a U.S.-based online poker industry. But former U.S. solicitor general Paul Clement said he found flaws in segments of the bill that seek to punish overseas providers that ran games in the United States and continued to take bets from U.S. players even after Congress enacted online restrictions in 2006.

The so-called “penalty box” provisions would prohibit those companies from applying for an online poker license for five years, and from selling their trademarks or software to others seeking a license.

Clement said the bill being formed by Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., “raises serious due process concerns.”

Real money games, AP exec avoids hard time, Bodog says goodbye

It’s not poker and it’s not in the States, but there are now a few games on Facebook where you can gamble with honest-to-god cash money. For now there’s just Bingo and Slots available for wagers and only if you are of legal age in the United Kingdom. The door is now open for people to lose their money while posting inane drivel for the rest of the world to see.

Colorado Club Fed for Absolute Poker’s Brent Beckley – Haley Hintze reports AP vice president Brent Beckley is scheduled to enter a minimum security prison in Colorado after his plea deal with the DoJ. Most disturbing part for me was finding out Oklahoma City bombers Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were held in a Club Fed during their trial for killing 168 people.

Bodog Poker to Exit 20 Countries by September 2012 – Per PokerNews, Bodog is saying goodbye, la revedere, ardievas, zbogom, ???????, and ?? ???????? (thank you Google Translate) to 20 countries by the end of the month per an email sent out to customers.

Online poker has been a conspiracy to fool US government, Beckley admits

DOJ prosecutors keep moving up their ladder of bad guys in the unlawful internet gambling case against Isai Scheinberg et al. Brent Beckley, the 31-year-old father of two and a co-owner of Absolute Poker, told a Manhattan judge he did indeed lead a company that deceived US banks to circumvent US law, and acknowledged conspiring with others to commit bank and wire fraud. Beckley will likely serve 12-18 months in prison as part of a plea agreement, Reuters and the New York Times report.

This probably doesn’t bode well for other Black Friday defendants who face more severe charges and still haven’t stepped foot into US court. Though I haven’t seen actual documents on this one yet (readers please feel free to send a link or pdf), I’d be willing to bet (on this-here internet?) that the plea deal does not cut Beckley any slack because Absolute Poker patches said “dot net”.

The big news this week is PPA’s meeting with the Department of Justice regarding player funds locked up on Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker, and Ultimate Bet. Needless to say, this is at the forefront of the concerns of the membership and of the PPA, so I am pleased to report that your PPA has been proactive in pushing for restitution for our members.

From Executive Director John Pappas:

“We still have an open dialogue with [the DOJ] and look forward to more productive conversations down the road. We plan to follow up to make sure the DOJ gets a guarantee that players get restitution through any deal with new Full Tilt management.”

Stacey Nutini, Tobey Maguire, Phil Tom

Druff, Micon, and Drexel are all present for this one, as we return to the airwaves after a 16-day absence. Tournament grinder Stacey Lynn is our special guest. We talk about the Tobey Maguire poker bust. AP founder Phil Tom is back at the WSOP playing Mr. Innocent. We discuss the rumors that Full Tilt stupidly invested $200 million in a no-name movie company. Micon continues to obsess over bitcoins. The June 29th DonkDown Insert Coins Party is announced. Drexel walks off the show when Micon won’t hang up on Yebsite. Druff and Micon both deal with illnesses while hosting the episode. Druff talks about being denied tomatoes on the side at a Subway restaurant.[audio:http://www.donkdown.com/components/com_podcast/itunes/DDRadio-2011_06_22_19_30_00.mp3|titles=DonkDown Radio 06-22-2011|autostart=no]

The Cereus Poker Network, home of Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet, have been sold to “e-gaming entrepreneur” Stuart Gordon, creating Blanca Games to purchase the company previously owned by Tokwiro Enterprises ENRG.

CalvinAyre.com is saying that the Cereus Network — the beleaguered yet thriving online poker+blackjack collective — is shutting down their office in the Kahnawake territory. The Kahnawake Mohawk Territory, of course, roughly 18 square miles located just outside of Montreal, has long been a refuge for online gambling sites operating literally outside the reach of US law. It has been the home of Ulitmate Bet (now UB) since 2001 and Absolute Poker since 2003.

It’s also possible, of course, that maybe their lease was just up, and they found a sweet new pad with a view of the St. Lawrence River?

We’ll surely see in coming days and weeks. But I’m at least 9045 72 percent sure that such a move isbig deal in some capacity, and it coincides with more lawuits Pokerati hasn’t even told you about. I literally can’t keep up with all the shizznit heading toward various fans at this moment. I’m trying though … Stay tuned today, tomorrow, and in coming weeks to learn about more business and legal matters that may well affect operations at the 2010 WSOP and beyond.

UPDATE: Plausibly connected … @KevMath (of course) tips me off (and the folks at 2+2) to a letter from the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, dated May 10, 2010, acknowledging a “memo of understanding” between them and the Alderney Gambling Control Commission. Alderney is the small British dependency in the Channel Islands that currently licenses and regulates Full Tilt.

Last Saturday, according to the Donkdown forum (some images NSFW), Lacey Jones let Brian Micon and Todd Witteles know she is no longer a part of Absolute Poker. Lacey will be appearing as a presenter for Full Til’s Doubles Poker Championship, airing in mid-July on GSN. Further details weren’t available, but I’d think they mention this news on DonkDown’s Cold Call show, airing Wednesday night around 7:30pm PT.

Cereus COO Paul Leggett issued a response shortly after the PTR report came out Thursday evening and posted a status update just a few minutes ago stating that they’ve issued an update to their software earlier Friday and are working with PTR on the new encryption and the eventual release of a more advanced solution using the Open SSL protocol, scheduled to be available in one week.

Tuesday night’s WSOP Main Event episode featured Norman Chad stating one sentence about the Ultimate Bet scandals as Phil Hellmuth and Todd “Dan Druff” Witteles were at the same feature table. Michalski noted in the comments, Mark originally “broke his silence” regarding the Absolute Poker scandal over at Raw Vegas back in 2007.

Many in the poker industry consider the UltimateBet and Absolute Poker scandals resolved, at least as much as we can expect them to be considering the sources of any information and the lack of the ability to involve U.S. law enforcement due to jurisdictional issues. And while some of us still have eyes and ears open for further developments, such as those that may appear on a Russ Hamilton twitter feed, Haley Hintze, former Editor-in-Chief of PokerNews, has decided to put out all of her well-informed conjecture on her own blog and gives one of the more detailed explanations of how, when, and why the UB/AP scandals were perpetrated. Though she has only posted Part 1, the rest of the story, we presume, is forthcoming.

Part 1 dives into the beginnings and how Hamilton got involved and possibly recruited help. Here is a portion of the post:

There are three reasonable scenarios for how the cheating spread, as spread it surely did:

1) One or more software engineers working on the UB code recognized the illicit profit potential for themselves, and also began to slice money from the games;

2) Hamilton himself recruited one or more Costa Rican workers to assist him in the cheating, as a way of expanding the total money being stolen;

3) Someone at UB caught Hamilton — probably noticing unusual withdrawal amounts relative to the amount of play Hamilton was logging — and decided to cut himself in for a slice of the action.

From some time in 2006, I believe, it was game on in a big way for the cheats. I’d heard whispers as far back as 2005 that something was wrong with the cash games at UB, but I played there very little, only at small stakes, and couldn’t really speak to it.